Bruises and brackets: What does 2012 say about MMA's tournament format?

In recent months, Zuffa saw the most significant movement of brackets since UFC President Dana White and Co. determined tournaments are a no-holds-barred birthmark, something available only in their early history or left behind in the rubble of PRIDE, rather than the sport’s signature imprint.

First, Zuffa finished out a heavyweight grand prix it inherited upon purchasing Strikeforce in March 2011 as alternate Daniel Cormier seized the crown May 19. Then shifting from Spike TV and pre-taped fights, “The Ultimate Fighter: Live” arrived on FX with live contests culminating in Michael Chiesa notching five victories in 13 weeks – three wins in the final three weeks – to secure a six-figure contract, TapouT sponsorship and Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Each tournament was rife with drama. Both the successes and stalls inherit in the format were on display.

If not for Cormier, an undefeated Olympic wrestler, besting Jeff Monson, Antonio Silva and bloodying “The Warmaster” Josh Barnett for 25 minutes in the finals, Strikeforce’s grand prix would have been crushed under the weight of Alistair Overeem jumping ship to the UFC, Fedor Emelianeko’s unceremonious first-round exit, and multiple scheduling stalls. As “TUF” experimented with a new format, Chiesa overcoming the death of his father to take home the most prizes in the show’s 15 iterations satisfied the story requirements of both reality TV and a compelling tournament.

The UFC’s reluctance to stage tournaments was justified when the flyweight tournament semifinals between Johnson and McCall suffered an anomalous misreading of the scorecards, which resulted in the fight going to “Mighty Mouse” even though it was actually a draw and McCall should have had the right to go to a sudden-death fourth round. However, McCall’s budding star-power and Johnson’s cool performance in the rematch did what the tournament was designed to do: showcase a new weight class equally as exciting and bankable to its seven counterparts.

The greatest difficulty in promoting tournaments isn’t the unforeseen troubles that may interject. Those setbacks evidenced by Cormier, Chiesa and Johnson only reveal layers to the story. The problem is continuity in a one-off world.

The UFC’s defacto motto is the octagon features the fights “fans want to see.” Matchmaking and fight hype in the UFC centers around placing fights in storylines akin to the NFL playoff structure – which is the most communicable sporting format stateside with arguably the largest prize in sports as the payoff: the event of the year, the Super Bowl. That is to give the illusion of a tournament format while promoting a single event (or in MMA, a single fight).

Team sports allow for clear passing through brackets to a mega-event because that event is pre-determined to be that large. With fighting being an individual sport, it demands a one-on-one story to lead to a can’t-miss spectacle – something Floyd Mayweather has done marvelously to record pay-per-view buys. While the tournament format is certainly capable of generating showcases seen and talked about by millions, there are no guarantees (Cormier definitely had a star-making performance yet Strikeforce drew just 5,413 fans to San Jose’s HP Pavilion, a venue that drew ibetween 14,000-17,000 on previous nights), especially when the fight game plays on short attention spans and malleable history. Thus the UFC’s focus on the one-off fight hedges its bet: a low-end PPV is a bad game, not a bad season.

Tournaments have a way of disappointing or delighting when it comes to the fights fan want to see. The UFC has gone without them for the most part and become a billion dollar company. However, the ever-changing landscape – including this year’s string of tournaments – suggest anything is possible for the format.

Nostalgia sells. What made PRIDE special was seeing eight top fighters from the same weight class on the same card while knowing only half would be available for the jackpot at the next event. How much more impact could UFC 146’s successful all-heavyweight main card have had if the all the competitors were positioning for a stated No. 1 contender’s spot as Cain Velasquez did? Or simply, a million dollars? Could the UFC attract bigger sponsors with an ongoing, high-level tournament as opposed to one-off title fights? What if Bud Light sponsored a tournament rather than individual events?

Fight audiences are dictated by the stakes of the fight. The UFC and MMA have a great history with the tournament format, so hosting eight- or 16-man tournaments would call attention to that while focusing on a star friendly stage to build future PPV draws. (Imagine if Cormier accomplished what he did while backed by the UFC’s promotional muscle.)

To construct a high-level grand prix comprised of champions, stars and high-level prospects requires a greater monetary incentive or crown. Jon Jones fought through an unparalleled four bouts in 2011, but how much more would it take for that to be a contractual requirement? The UFC can avoid that by staging tournaments in a reality-TV format. They could offer up exhibition bouts for the stakes of simply becoming a UFC fighter. “TUF” is a self-contained, almost parallel organization, and with the live fights now a thing of the past with the returned to pre-tape fights on the current “TUF 16,” winning an entry-level position as the grand prize is its challenge going forward.

The flyweight tournament is the first real voluntary tournament in the UFC under Zuffa. Recall late 2008 when Randy Couture‘s contract holdup kept him the heavyweight champion but brought an interim champion into the fold, which prompted a four-man bracket between Couture-Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir–Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Those were some of the biggest and most respected names in history. The 125-pounders are more akin to “TUF” contestants in terms of competing to establish their division as the show first did to establish the sport. The flyweights are the eighth – and possibly final –division in the UFC. Flyweights may be the lightest competitors in the UFC; however, the finals between Benavidez and Johnson can stir the conversation or tilt the demand for four-, eight- or 16-man tournaments in the UFC – or perhaps not at all.

The end of tournaments may be the winter of dismay for MMA fans, or brackets may simply never exist in the mind of fight consumers. Fighters are by definition, if anything, willing. How tournaments related to the octagon exist going forward is decided when the cage door shuts as long as the history books remain open.

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